POSTS

You’re ready to kick carbon to the curb, but you’re not sure which kind of car will work best
for you. With oil prices spiking, temperatures rising, and the public crying for relief, automakers are scrambling to offer consumers alternatives to pollution-spewing gas-guzzlers. Here are the specs on the best available technologies – flex-fuel, diesel, and hybrid.

Special sensors mean flex-fuel car owners can fill up with either gasoline or an ethanol blend and the vehicle will automatically adjust to the mix. Although the engines can run on any gas and ethanol/alcohol combination, for now there are only two options at the pump: E10 (10 percent ethanol, 90 percent gasoline) and E85 (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline).

WIRED
• With homegrown E85, at least 85 percent of your dollars stay in the US.
• No sticker shock. These cars cost the same as internal combustion models.
• E85 emits 30 percent less greenhouse gases than gasoline.

TIRED
• Big subsidies for Big Agriculture (think Archer Daniels Midland).
• Good luck finding E85. Of 165,000 stations in the US, only about 685 sell the stuff (with most in the Midwest).
• Oil’s new best friend – gasoline retailers get a $30,000 tax deduction every time they add an E85 fuel pump.

Forget the smelly,
smoke-spewing chuggers
of yester­year. By 2007, 80 percent of the diesel for cars in the US will be as clean as the diesel Europeans have enjoyed for years. Expect carmakers like Volkswagen
and DaimlerChrysler to debut clean diesel engines this fall.
As the dark horse of green
auto tech, diesel is poised
for success: Starting this summer, gas retailers across the US will be required to carry the eco-friendly fuel.

The Prius isn’t the only hybrid. The first models
were designed solely for fuel efficiency, but lately the trend has been more horsepower with only token MPG increases, like the Lexus featured here. In two to
three years, new ethanol
and diesel hybrids should
give us both top-notch power and fuel efficiency.

WIRED
• No other green tech beats hybrids
for fuel efficiency, carbon cutting,
and horsepower.
• In some states, a hybrid is a free pass for a solo driver to ride in the carpool lane.
• Save up to $3,400 with a federal tax credit (additional state benefits vary).

TIRED
• Expect to pay about $5,000 more for
a hybrid than for an all-gas vehicle.
• Your results may vary: EPA currently overstates the MPG of all hybrids.
• Slow adoption: Hybrids still make up only 1.2 percent of the market.